This Martin D-18 bearing serial #80221 was manufactured
on January 15, 1942 at the Martin factory in Nazareth, PA. Sometime after
November of 1954 Elvis traded his Martin 000-18
for this 1942 Martin D-18 at O.K. Houck Piano Co. in Memphis.

A new D-18 at the time sold for $140 (cases went for
about $40-$45). This
guitar used would've been discounted anywhere from 25% to 40% of that.
Sid Lapworth
said he gave him the payments Elvis had made on the $79.50 purchase
price of the 000-18 in trade towards it. The D-18 was used for performing
and recording until sometime after June 15 of 1955 at which time he
purchased and started using a
Martin D-28.*

Note the excessive
wear due to Elvis' aggressive strumming style. Scotty has said
"He’d break strings all the time.In the early days he’d just keep beatin’ on it until we got
through the set." Like the 000-18 he used stick on letter's spelling
"ELVIS" on the top, only
on the D-18 they were positioned in a parallel orientation.
Bill Black also applied "BILL" likewise to his bass.
The letters came with the guitar when he bought it at Houck's. Sid
said that the letters came from the David Wexler Company in Chicago as
did all of their strings, picks and accessories. When he sold
guitars he gave the buyer either a set of strings, some picks or their
name in letters. Often people would apply the letters to the case
instead of the guitar itself.

According to Martin's Historical notes, "This particular instrument was handcrafted in the Martin guitar factory, which was at that time located at 10 West North Street in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. January 15, 1942 is considered to be the birthday of this guitar, the date the serial number was stamped into the neck block. It was made under the Martin shop order No. 592 of that year. Martin made approximately 326 style D-18 guitars during that year. Production was quite low due to the war time restrictions."

Many of the models, including the D-18 produced during
the war years, 1942 - 1945, used open back tuning machines with plastic
buttons to conserve metal. Elvis' was at some point prior to his
purchase installed with Kluson sealed case tuners used regularly on many
guitars in the '50s. When Sid took this guitar back on trade he seems to
recollect removing the original letters selling Elvis and cleaning it up
before reselling it.

This guitar was on loan to the Country
Music Hall of Fame from 1974 until 1991 (the 'S' on
the letters long since missing) when it was sold at auction in the U.S. to
a British collector. On May 14, 1993 it sold again at auction by
Christies in London to Michael Malone for $151,700 who then had it on loan in 1998 to the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame. It had been on display at the corporate
offices of DMX Music, Inc
in Seattle, WA at the time this page was published.